Panoramic windshield viewer system

Abstract

Forward oblique blind spots of a vehicle, generated by the vehicle's front windshield pillars, are eliminated by provision of a panoramic windshield viewer system, thus allowing the driver to operate the vehicle without having his view impaired by visual obstructions that would otherwise be caused by the windshield pillars.

1 . An apparatus for display to an operator of a vehicle of a partially obstructed view through a vehicle windshield, comprising:
 an external camera configured to capture an image of an obstructed portion of said view;   a processor configured to receive said image from said external camera and to process said image for display;   a display configured to display on an obstruction of the vehicle the obstructed portion of the view captured by said external camera;   said processor configured to modify said image to generate a modified image to provide to said display in which the obstructed portion of the view is replaced by said modified image; and   said processor configured to apply image warping to modify said image for a graphical representation on said display based on converting distorted image data to a different coordinate system using a pixel length of the display.   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the external camera is mounted within a headlight assembly of the vehicle. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein modifying said image includes cropping a portion of the image to generate the modified image, the cropping based on characteristics of the obstruction of the vehicle. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the obstruction of the vehicle is a front pillar of the vehicle, the modified image displayed upon the front pillar. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a motor configured to adjust a position of said external camera to capture the obstructed portion of the view.   
     
     
         6 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said processor is configured to determine characteristics regarding the vehicle, and configured to adjust a focal length of the external camera based on the characteristics. 
     
     
         7 . The apparatus of  claim 6 , wherein the characteristics include a velocity of the vehicle. 
     
     
         8 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein modifying said image includes adjusting a focal length of the external camera based on a speed of the vehicle. 
     
     
         9 . An apparatus comprising:
 a first camera configured to capture an image of an area forward of a windshield of a vehicle having a first windshield pillar;   a first display configured to be disposed upon the first windshield pillar; and   a processor configured to modify the image to generate a modified image for displaying on the first display, modifying the image including generating the modified image in accordance with characteristics of the first windshield pillar.   
     
     
         10 . The apparatus of  claim 9 , wherein the characteristics of the first windshield pillar includes a curvature of the first windshield pillar. 
     
     
         11 . The apparatus of  claim 10 , wherein generating the modified image in accordance with the characteristics includes converting image data of the image to a different coordinate system related to the first display. 
     
     
         12 . The apparatus of  claim 11 , wherein converting the image data is based on a pixel length of the first display. 
     
     
         13 . The apparatus of  claim 9 , wherein the processor is configured to determine a velocity of the vehicle, and configured to adjust the modified image based on the velocity. 
     
     
         14 . The apparatus of  claim 13 , wherein the processor is configured to adjust a focal length of the first camera in response to the determination of the velocity of the vehicle. 
     
     
         15 . The apparatus of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 a second camera configured to capture another image of the area forward of the windshield of the vehicle, wherein the first camera and the second camera are disposed within different headlight assemblies.   
     
     
         16 . The apparatus of  claim 15 , wherein the modified image is based on the image captured by the first camera and the another image captured by the second camera. 
     
     
         17 . The apparatus of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 a second display configured to be disposed upon a second windshield pillar, and wherein the processor is configured to modify the another image to generate a second modified image for displaying on the second display disposed on the second windshield pillar.   
     
     
         18 . A method comprising:
 receiving, by a processor, image data of an area forward of a windshield of a vehicle having a first windshield pillar;   modifying, by the processor, the image data to generate modified image data, the modified image data based on a curvature of the first windshield pillar; and   displaying, by the processor, the modified image data on a first display disposed upon the first windshield pillar in accordance with the curvature of the first windshield pillar.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein generating the modified image data includes converting distorted image data of the image data to a different coordinate system using a pixel length of the first display. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising:
 determining, by the processor, a change in a velocity of the vehicle;   generating second modified image data in response to the determination of the change in the velocity of the vehicle; and   displaying the second modified image data on the first display disposed on the first windshield pillar.   
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20 , wherein generating the second modified image data includes adjusting a focal length of a camera used to capture image data for the second modified image data.